October 18, 2007

The Arab Film Festival opens at the Clay and continues in several venues (including the Roxie) in the bay area through the 28th and then in LA October 31st to November 4th.

The United Nations Association Film Festival is at the Roxie in San Francisco tonight, then East Palo Alto on the 19th, and San Jose on the 21st. I'll write more about some of the films which will be playing at Stanford from the 24th to the 28th.

October 16, 2007

Frontline begins the fall season tonight with Cheney's Law. It expands on last year's The Dark Side (which is online), with a focus on Cheney's push to expand executive power and many would consider the disastrous consequences. It will be online Wednesday. Also see the Washington Post's series on Cheney.

The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio screens at the Clay Theater at 7:30 followed by a performance by the group and Q&A with filmmaker Agostino Ferrente. The documentary tells story of an effort to save a historic theater by creating an orchestra made up of musicians from all over the world. The tour is being presented by Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment.

Yep - she was sacked but we went to Nepal and negotiated her reinstatement. We were all devastated by the news of her dethroning and we and her family took her to India while the situation was sorted out. Many people from her hometown refused to accept her being dethroned...

If you missed the film, it will start opening around the country by Thanksgiving. More photos (including of JoanBaez, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Larry Harvey). There are also many more great documentaries at DocFest through October 10th.

Also tonight at 8 pm, there will be a showing of The Tribe at the San Francisco Apple store followed by a panel discussion of the internet and film distribution with Tiffany
Shlain and Ken Goldberg. The filmis now availalbe on iTunes for $1.99 and also on DVD with a discussion kit.

One of the most interesting documentaries playing this weekend is wtf: an okaymentary, a profile of the OkayPlayer online community. It is co-directed by Leslye James who will be at the screenings at 5 pm on Saturday, September 29th and Sunday, September 30th.

I'll be going to screenings and posting and taking photos over the next 13 days.

September 24, 2007

Strange Culture is playing at the Roxie and the Rafael through Thursday, September 27th. It will be at the Cinema Village in New York from October 5th to 18th (check the website for other places it will be shown).

It tells the story of artist Steve Kurtz's arrest in 2004 weaving together documentary, segments with Tilda Swinton and other actors, and animation. I saw Kurtz talk about his art at SFMOMA in March and saw the film at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May (photos).

DocFest opens at the Roxie on Friday and runs through October 10th and the Mill Valley Film Festival opens at the Rafael and other theaters on October 4th and runs through October 14th. I'll be writing about both festivals.

The film tells the story of the genocide in Darfur through the eyes of Brian Steidle who became a military observer there in 2004 after leaving the Marines. He photographed the horrors he saw there, but later wrote that his camera was not nearly enough. But the images he took are powerful, particularly as he tells the story in the film.

Wells says there will be a feature film based on his story, but people should see the documentary now. I askedher about being the field producer on a segment of the film where Steidle visits Rwanda. She said people are still in mourning twelve years later, that what happened had an impact long after the killing stopped.

War Made Easy continues at the Roxie through at least September 14th. Norman Solomon will introduce the film at the Rafael tonight (8-31), and it will open at the Elmwood in Berkeley on September 7th (check the website for more information on more theaters. It is also available on DVD).

August 24, 2007

The Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary on Darfur which was sold out at the San Francisco International Film Festival, is opening in the bay area. Friday, August 24th, Mayor Gavin Newsom will introduce the 7 pm screening at the Roxie, and producer Jane Wells will do a Q&A. She will also be at the 8:50 screening and at the 5:10 pm (Q&A) and 7:30 pm (intro) shows at the Shattuck in Berkeley on Saturday, and the 4:30 pm (Q&A) and 6:45 pm (intro) at the Rafael. The 11th Hour

War Made Easy also opens at the Roxie. Norman Solomon will be at the opening on Friday, August 31st at the Rafael. I do Norman's website and have sent him an email asking if he will be at any of the Roxie screenings. There was an article in the Chronicle on how the film uses fair use. It will expand to theaters in other cities and is available on DVD and for screenings at house parties. More photos of the screening at the Grand Lake theater.

Thom Hartmann and Paul Hawken will be at the 7:30 pm and 10 pm shows of the environmental documentary the 11th Hour on Friday at the Embacadero. Producer Brian Gerber will be at all shows on Saturday and Sunday.

Director Seth Gordon will speak at the 7:15 pm and 9:45 pm screenings of The King of Kong on Friday.

There will be a free screening of Made in LA on Thursday, September 6 at 7 pm at the Roxie (it will also be show on PBS on September 4th). There will be a
discussion with filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar;
Guadalupe Hernandez, one of the workers featured in the film; and Katie
Quan, Associate Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

July 31, 2007

I first saw Ralph Arlyck's films in college, but I never saw his 1969 short film Sean (which is now online through 8-31-07). In Following Sean which airs on most PBS stations as part of POV on Tuesday, July 31, Arlyck describes how the film about a child living in the Haight became part of the cultural debate at the time. I saw it at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2005. The documentary updates Sean's story. It is also available on DVD.

This afternoon at 3 pm, following a 1:50 pm screening of Wasted at Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater, there will be a panel discusion of Israeli documentaries. Several of the filmmakers participating including Shimon Dotan were interviewed on YourCall Radio (an MP3 is online). Donlan's intense Hot House which won the best World Cinema Documentary award at Sundance is screening at 4:30 pm today in Palo Alto, on Sunday at 4:15 pm in Berkeley, and next Saturday, Aug 4 at 4:30 pm in San Rafael (full details are at the link)

I'll write more about some of the films, but I have posted a bunch of photos.

It opens Friday at 7 pm with Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince of Old Heidelberg. Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle (who has written about star Norma Shearer in his book Complicated Women) introduces the film. He talked with Silent Film Festival executive director Stacy Wisnia and with artistic director Stephen Salmons on recent podcasts.

July 06, 2007

Gypsy Caravan director Jasmine Dellal will do a Q&A after the Saturday, July 7th 4:50 show at the Shattuck and the 7 pm show at the Lumiere. Voices of Roma will present live music and a discussion on Friday, July 6th at the 7 pm Lumiere and the Saturday, July 7th show at 7:10 pm at the Shattuck.

Also tonight on most PBS stations and online later this week is the last episode of this season of Frontline/World (though they will be posting a new story or photo essay each week this summer - subscribe to the newsletter to get updates).

Red Without Blue won the $10,000 Michael J. Berg documentary award for best documentary. It will be on the Sundance Channel at 9 pm tonight and screeening at a number of festivals. SIgn up for their email list to get information on when it will be repeated and available on DVD. Michael Guillen interviewed the directors.

June 22, 2007

The best musical (and one of the best movies) I saw last year, Colma: the Musical, opens Friday in San Francisco. There will be Q&As at the Embarcadero with director Richard Wong, screenwriter and star H.P. Mendoza, and other cast members at the 7:30 pm and 10 pm shows on Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23rd. There will also be a party Friday at Frisson.

It will be opening in New York City on July 6th at The Quad Cinemas at 34 W. 13th St and in LA in August. Hopefully, it will be the sleeper indie hit of the summer (they already have an ad promoting repeat viewings) and expand to other cities.

More photos from the premiere at the 2006 San Francisco International Film Festival where it won a special jury award (they did the trailer for this year's fest). RIchard Wong was also a finalist for the Independent Spirit Someone to Watch Award.

June 20, 2007

Frameline continues through Sunday. There still are so many films to see. Here are a few.

I'll write more about Red Without Blue when it airs on the Sundance Channel on Monday, June 25th, but there is a screening on Wednesday at 2:15 pm at the Castro with the directors and the twins the film is about doing a Q&A.

On Thursday at 7 pm at the Victoria, Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe is screening (it is sold out, but there are rush tickets if you get there early enough). I followed the NEA battle over Mapplethorpe's work closely (and was able to see the show that sparked the controversy at the Whitney), but I still learned a lot about his work and the influence of Sam Wagstaff.

Lynn Breedlove's Godspeed (based on her novel) will also show on Saturday as part of the same shorts program. Breedlove will also be reading on Wednesday at 6 pm at the main library as part of the Mad to Live: Queers Under the Influence of the Beats series Tea organized (it concludes on June 27th at the same time). Two films by experimental filmmaker Abigail Child will also be shown on Saturday at the Victoria at 6 pm.

June 19, 2007

On the last episode of the Sopranos, Anthony, Jr. is watching a Frontline program on Iraq. Endgame will almost certainly not be the last time Frontline does a program on Iraq. But it does take a look back at the military failures in Iraq and how "the surge" strategy became the Bush administration's policy. It airs Tuesday, June 19th on PBS station, and the entire program will be online.

MayaLawson (on the screen above) will be at the Saturday, June 16th San Francisco screenings at 4:45 pm and 7:30 pm the Lumiere.

Guy Maddin wrote that one of the reasons he made Brand was to get more people to see silent films. At the San Francisco screening, he said the first time he saw a silent film with live music was at the San Francisco film festival in the 80s. Hopefully some of the people who see Brand will go to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival at the Castro July 13th - 15th.

Bittner and director Judy Irving were interviewed last year on Terra TV. Sign up for the email list on the Wild Parrots site (scroll down to the bottom) to get updates on the parrots and their other projects.

I wrote about San Franciso public defender Jeff Adachi's documentary,The Slanted Screen, last year when it was shown theatrically. It has been airing on PBS stations this month and will be on KQED tonight at 10:30 pm. It is also available on DVD. Jeff Adachi was interviewed earlier this month on WBUR.

May 23, 2007

For 30 years, Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep was only rarely shown. Even after being named to the National Film Registry in 1990, it wasn't released theatrically or on video. As David Kehr wrote in the New York Times, the reason was the film was made as Burnett's graduate film at UCLA, so the music rights were never cleared.

It took six years and $150,000 (half donated by Steven Soderbergh) was spent to get the music rights. They still weren't able to get the rights to Unforgettable by Dinah Washington which played during the closing of the film (and is still listed in the closing credits - you can buy it on itunes for 99 cents and bring your ipod to the theater).

Killer of Sheep is playing in theaters in some cities through the fall. It is at the Castro and Rafael through Thursday. It will continue through at least next week at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It will be out on DVD along with My Brothers Wedding and some short films on November 13th, but see it in a theater if you can. Hopefully, his 1990 film, To Sleep with Anger, will also soon be available again on DVD.

May 18, 2007

Screenings of The Rape of Europa were sold out during the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it opens tonight in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Rafael. Co-directors Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham, and Bernard Taper (who is interviewed in the film) will answer questions after the 7:30 pm show on Friday, May 18th at the Embarcadero (sign up for the Landmark newsletter to see if they will be at any future shows).

The documentary, based on the book of the same name by Lynn Nicholas, focuses on the massive theft of art by the Nazis which continues to have an impact today. It doesn't ignore the impact of the Allies telling the story of the military's Monuments Men (including Taper) who worked to protect the culture of the cities in the path of the war.

While Rape of Europa will be shown on PBS, it does make a difference to really be able to see the art in a theater (schedule). And it tells important aspects of the story the weren't in The Architecture of Doom and exhibits and plays I'd seen on the Nazis and art.

It becomes clear that some of the inmates in When Kids Get Life should never have gone to jail and others should not spend the rest of their lives in jail.

Colorado once had one of the most progressive juvenile justice systems. Jeffrey Fagan is interviewed about it. But, in the early 90s like many states, they changed the law to allow for juveniles to be tried as adults and sent to prison for life without parole. And the choice was left to the prosecutor, not the judge.

In 2006, Colorado became the first state to change from life to being eligable for parole after 40 years. But a compromise to pass the bill over the objections of district attorneys and the families of murder victims dropped a provision to make it retroactive.

When Graham Leggat said (Enric has some video) at the press conference announcing the lineup for the 50 San Francisco International Film Festival that some films would be available on Jaman for a limited number of downloads, I didn't realize how limited.

They had hoped to announce the films at the press conference, then 10 days before the festival began, but the names of the films weren't released until a few days into the fest. The six films would be available for a day for up to 100 downloads.

The Key of G was available on Jaman only outside of the US and Canada because it will be on PBS in October. Sundance made some of the short films they showed available for free online and/or for $2 on itunes. After he was on a panel at SFMOMA in February, I asked Jay Rosenblatt why he didn't include his Sundance short I Just Wanted to Be Somebody (which will also screen at Frameline in June). He said his film was being considered by a cable channel which wouldn't have permitted it to be shown online. Filmmakers may also only have festival rights to footage and music in their films before they are picked up for distribution or television.

And while Jaman is a great service (I've been beta testing it for a few months), it does require registration and downloading a player. And the files are large, around a gig or more (though they download relatively quickly on a fastinternet connection). Tribeca has also been offering free films for about a week each with no limit on downloads (one film is still available through the 9th and another through the 11th). Still, one film was downloaded 128 times, one 106 times, and another 63 times according to Jaman's most downloaded page.

The SFIFF50 film All in This Tea was downloaded almost 80 times in one day. When I asked Les Blank last week why he participated, he said, "Why not?" He said he was experimenting with online distribution including making his 1973 film, Dry Wood, available at the free streaming site, Folkstreams.

More theatrical distributors and television outlets should have that attitude. Seeing a film online may help build an audience in theaters and on television. When Sundance asked the filmmakers of The Tribe to put it online as part of the 2006 festival, they were hesitant. But being online actually helped their DVD sales (when they had to have Sundance take the film down during Tribeca last year, sales went down).

Rob Nilsson's SAMT (which I saw when it screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival) is available today. Security is available Wednesday, and Opening on Thursday.

May 05, 2007

Last year's SFIFF Centerpiece film was Backstage (French site) which recently came out on DVD. Isild Le Besco (French site) played a teenager obsessed with a Madonna-like singer who has the chance to meet her through an MTV style reality show.

This year's Centerpiece film, Delirious (French site even though it is not a French film), explores some similar themes. Steve Buscemi plays a photographer obsessed with getting the celebrity "shot heard 'round the world." It was directed by Tom DiCillio who also made Living in Oblivion (amazingly, the 1995 website is still online). Delirious screens tonight at the Kabuki at 7 pm. It is sold out, but there will be rush tickets if you get there early enough. If you see it when it is released theatrically, make sure you stay until the end of the credits.

Isild Le Besco gives an even better performance in a film at this year's festival, A Parting Shot,
which screens tonight at 7 pm at the Clay, and at the Kabuki on Monday
at 1:30 pm, Tuesday at 6:30 pm, and Thursday at 4:30 pm.